Petunia

Pétunia first started in 2004 on the initiative of Claude , Valérie Chartrain , Lili Reynaud Dewar and Mai Tran . In 2008 , following a discussion between Lili Reynaud Dewar and Dorothée Dupuis , the project is back on tracks . The initial statement , written in 2004 , oddly remains pretty accurate as this first issue is being released . We decided to use an excerpt of it to introduce Pétunia

“As a highly illustrated magazine , Pétunia presents artists’ proposals and texts in French or English . Pétunia’s issues are organised around subjective emergencies . Pétunia avoids using author’s texts as illustrations of a main topic chosen by the chief editors . There is no editorial or publisher’s statement . Each issue will be autonomous , and does not connect with territorial issues and current matters or trends . There are no chapters or sections , but diverse textual forms , from theoretical texts to diary entries to pure fiction or comics , mostly concerning contemporary art . The layout of Pétunia will be an important part of each issue; its graphic design will be very present and proclaimed . Pétunia wants to be an unclassified object that paradoxically affirms a strong identity in focusing foremost on the work of women critics , curators , artists . . . From this perspective , Pétunia is a feminist publication playing the game of affirmative action , as a response to the constant imbalance of the role and place of women in the art world . Pétunia also reactivates — hopefully with nostalgia and humour — the forms of ideological engagement of women regarding art and critical production , while enriching its view of three decades of “women studies” , “black studies” , post - colonial studies and , of course , post - feminist studies .”